Lotus

[burnie]

Has anyone grown these before? I'm trying from some seeds a friend gave me, I've looked at various videos on youtube and I have to say they are not doing the same. The vids show lots of growth with new shoots appearing in a couple of days, well here we are 2 weeks in and the first sign of life. Anyone got any tips, do they have to remain in home or can they go outside in the summer?

[rary]

Haven't a clue burnie but would be interested in seeing some photos of them as they grow

[burnie]

I think up here it will be a house plant, but no idea how big it might get lol.

[ameno]

I've never grown one, but I'm fairly certain they are actually winter-hardy, as long as the pond is deep enough that it doesn't freeze (surface freezing is fine, as they are deciduous, anyway, but the tuber mustn't freeze).
They apparently need very rich soil to do well, though, and a good sized root run.
Read this: https://www.watergardenplants.co.uk/collections/lotus
I actually looked into growing one once for lotus root, but apparently you need far warmer summers than we get to get any kind of worthwhile crop out of it.

[burnie]

An quick update, it seems that those seeds that float won't grow, so half have been binned(well actually chucked in the garden pond, they have two chances), growth is still happening, but it painfully slow.

[ameno]

The truth is, I actually bought some lotus seeds on ebay just a couple after my initial post (despite saying I wasn't going to bother). They've been in soak for 5 days now, and the first one is just starting to split open and I can see a little green shoot in there.

[burnie]

I had a look on yotube, one guy said crack them with a hammer, so I did that with the first batch, I then saw another guy who said sand or file the end open to allow the water in, this second method seems to be more successful as 3 out of the 4 are now growing..

[ameno]

I sanded mine. I didn't sand them all the way open, though. I just sanded the seed coat a bit thinner. It seemed to work, as the side I had sanded started rippling as it absorbed water and the whole seed swelled up within a couple days.
I was originally planning to sand all the way through, but I was at it for ages and never managed it, so I gave up. The seed coats on these things are really tough.

[burnie]

Update is that 4 are getting some leaves appearing on the tips, so I have planted them up in top soil in 1 litre pots and they are in the pond, here's hoping the warm weather continues for a bit to keep them happy.

[ameno]

I just potted up one of mine, as the shoot was 3 inches long. I don't have a pond, so it's in its own self-contained mini-pond: a 5 litre container which I half filled with soil from the veg patch, with pea gravel on top of the soil to stop it mixing with the water. I've kept the water level at about 2 inches above the gravel for now. It's in a sunny spot on my patio.
Three of the other seeds are now germinating, too. The remaining one still isn't doing anything. It was a floater, so it may well be a dud, but it sank yesterday and is staying on the bottom, so I'll leave it for now and see if it does germinate.